1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of forming a label with a label forming apparatus which is capable of performing print processing and physical work processing on an identical processing sheet, and also relates to a label forming apparatus. The term “work processing” or “physical work processing” is used in this specification to mean “performing a physical act or acts, processing, or treatment on an object to be subjected to the processing to produce some kind of change.”
2. Related Art
In print processing of character array including numerals, there is known an apparatus for use in forming a plurality of labels which are attached with a plurality of serially numbered labels, by repeating the printing work while incrementing the counting number by one. In such a case, considering the ease with which the labels can be stored until the labels are used, the apparatus is configured such that a continuous label made up of a plurality of labels are connected to one another. JP-A-185695-1993 is an example of related art. Further, there is also known one which is made up of a printing section for performing ink-character printing on a processing tape and an embossing section for performing Braille embossing and in which a label can formed in a manner in which the ink characters and the Braille characters are disposed in parallel with each other so that the person having an ordinary eyesight can also understand the meaning of the Braille characters. JP-A-301033/1999 is an example of related art.
From these two conventional art, it may be considered to configure a label forming apparatus in which continuous labels can be formed by performing print processing and emboss processing. In this case, if a print-feed mechanism and an emboss-feed mechanism of the processing tape are used in common with each other, when embossing device performs embossing operation, the processing tape is likely to get off from a thermal head due to the embossing vibrations, thereby bringing about a problem in that the printing quality of the ink characters becomes poor. To avoid such a problem, the feeding mechanism will have to be provided independent of each other. In such a configuration, however, there will arise an error (feeding error) in the amount of tape feeding by the print-feeding mechanism and the amount of tape feeding by the emboss-feeding mechanism. Therefore, in case a continuous label is formed by performing both printing and embossing (also referred to as print-and-emboss processing), there will occur a problem of a displacement in the tape feeding direction between the print-processed portion (ink-character array) and the emboss-processed portion (Braille-character array) in each of the labels, the deviation becoming conspicuous toward the rear end of the continuous label.